[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] In the Papers...

Weird.

I appear to have a really touchy button on my mouse, and when I center-click on a link, instead of opening in a new tab, the link opens in about three or four new tabs. I figure it might not be the mouse, though. After all, I did play a lot of Asteroids in my youth, and I think, as a result, I have developed an innate and spastic button pushing technique.

Ah well... Not important.

Now, where was I?

Oh yes.

Get this:

I got an email this morning asking me if it would be okay if they printed this picture of mine in one of the local papers, and of course I said yes.

This is the second time they've asked to use a picture; however, on the first go-around, something came up, and they cancelled the edition's run of the entire section that would have contained the picture. So, that's kind of nice, and I'm sure a couple of people will see it and say "Holy shit! Dan's still alive?!?"

Other than that, today I am stoned clean off my freakin' gourd.

I knew it was going to be a bad day when the aches in my hands woke me up, and the crunch in my knees sounded like someone was violating stalks of celery as I negotiated my way downstairs to make coffee and find Vicodin (they really do go together like bacon and eggs).

The thing is, I saw this coming. When I saw a weakened Hurricane Ike meandering its way into my part of the world, I knew that what remained of the intense low-pressure system, and the rain it contained, would mingle with the fifty degree temperatures to create the sort of cold, bone-chilling damp that makes for some long, achy days.

It's weird how that works.

Now, insofar as I'm feeling a heap of pain, at least I'm not the Bulgarian Women's National Hockey Team. I mean, I may feel as though I've been beaten quite badly, but I think I can safely say that, without a doubt, I wasn't beaten anywhere near as bad as an 82-0 score in an Olympic qualifying hockey game.

Yes. You read that right. Eighty-Two to Zip!

In hockey.

I didn't think that hockey scoreboards could even go that high.

Ouch!

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/15/2008 11:02:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's a dark day, I guess...

This has never happened to me before...

I can't honestly think of one instance in my years as a reader where I began a book while the author was alive, only to have that author die before that book is finished.

It's a very strange feeling that ground itself into my chest when I learned that David Foster Wallace has killed himself.

For twelve years, I've wrestled with reading Wallace's massive novel Infinite Jest, but I have found it tedious and difficult to negotiate. In fact, more than once I have cast it aside in frustration. Inevitably, though, I would return to pick away at it as though I were pulling on a scab. It's a horrible book, but it's a wonderful book.

Anyway, Infinite Jest came to me in the mail one day in 1996. It was a fucking heavy box. And, I opened it to find this comically large book inside, and with a giggle, I set it on my "to read" shelf where it sat like a threat for several weeks.

During that time, I asked one of my English instructors about this David Foster Wallace character, and as it turns out, he was either his friend or his roommate (I can't remember exactly) while they were students at Arizona. So, needless to say, now whenever I approach that book, the image of one of my favorite teachers inevitably leaps to mind, and I still feel as though it's an assignment than anything I'm supposed to enjoy.

Nonetheless, I am sad that he is gone. I can't say that David Foster Wallace was one of my favorite writers or authors, but as it is with every other human being on the planet, there are things he's done that I do enjoy, and I believe I can say without a doubt that he was certainly a genius and an immense talent, and the world is going to be a worse place without his words.

It's a shame to lose someone like him.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/13/2008 08:44:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The signpost at the end of the road...

When walking toward the cliffside end of a long-abandoned road where more than a couple of heartbroken teenagers have hopped in their cars and driven off the edge into oblivion over the years before the passage was closed, when you stumble upon a sign such as this, it's hard not to feel some sort of shiver.

One of my neighbors, growing up, drove her car off the edge of this cliff shortly before her high-school graduation. She was in my older brother's (#5's) grade, and I never really knew her. But, I knew of her, and shortly after that event, the road here was closed with concrete barriers, and mounds of dirt with these barricades were placed in a mad chicane to discourage those drivers from reaching their final destination (of course, if you're ambitious, all you have to do is drive off the road into the vast field on the left and off-road your way to the end).

Nonetheless, there are some ghosts here, and to be perfectly honest, I don't know how many have chosen to meet their end on this strip of pavement. And, before you jump on me for believing in ghosts, I should point out that my definition of ghost is simply the memory of those involved in a tragic and sad event. There are no sheets, rattling chains and things floating around going woooOooo... So, keep your psychics, and those goons from the SciFi Channel away!

On the other hand, there are heaps of people who do honestly believe this strip of tarmac is "genuinely" haunted with all sorts of unexplained noises like squealing tires and what-have-you. And, even better, we've apparently got our own mysterious, potentially man-eating monster carousing the lots and fields, and someone built a MySpace page devoted to their tireless pursuit of the crazed and rabid beastie they've come to call "The Manwolf." They've even got a footprint picture (of course, don't look too closely at it, or you might realize that you're looking at two paw-prints sort of on top of one another in the mud. After all, the place is a pretty popular spot for dog-walkers, and I've got the shit on my shoes to prove it. And, the claw marks on that dude's shirt? Well, when I was climbing around there, I noticed a lot of thorns on a lot of branches).

Anyway, I can see how people could get freaked out running around this place at night. There's nothing there other than what once was. There were beautiful houses and probably some very happy lives that had to be uprooted when it was discovered that the lake was consuming their yards at an alarming and unstoppable pace. Some people put their houses on trucks and hauled them to other parts of town, and others just left them to fall into the lake or to be torn down.

However, once people were gone, something strange happened. The lake stopped its steady diet of earth, and the erosion slowed considerably once the people and their houses were gone 35 years, --or so-- ago (lower lake levels probably contributed to a lot of that). It was odd though, and the timing lends a certain eerie quality to it. It's like the earth there doesn't want any houses on it anywhere west of the train tracks about a half mile up the road away from the bluffs where civilization begins.

Finally, with the story told, you can see that the words in the picture above have a special meaning. It's creepy. And, it's funny in a spooky sort of way. Thankfully, the words are just that: Words. And, the fact that I just sneezed and painted my computer monitor with a field of rainbow speckles while typing this goes a long way in proving that I am still drawing a breath and, most certainly, not dead.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/13/2008 07:32:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The true tragedy of Ike.

This video is kind of sad.

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Clearly, it's hard to deal with a massive storm that can bring high winds and furries. Many furries are now homeless and wandering the beach confused and lost. Their only hope is to find a generous soul whose home is still standing to feed them the vodka and techno music that furries depend upon for their survival.

People of Galveston! Please open your hearts, your music collections and your liquor cabinets so that these precious and exotic creatures can find some level of solace in these dark and trying times.

-DP
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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/13/2008 03:07:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Cool.

Perhaps this is the first step in the bloody coup that I've been dreaming about for about six or seven years.

Breaking News: Gov. Beshear declares state of emergency to prevent price gouging
01:56 PM EDT on Friday, September 12, 2008

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - There is some breaking news regarding high gas prices.

WHAS11 News has learned that Governor Steve Beshear plans to declare a state of emergency in Kentucky for this weekend.

Declaring a state of emergency will prompt Kentucky's price gouging laws to go into effect.

Sources tell WHAS11’s Mark Hebert that the governor is concerned about reports of people overreacting and getting into fights at gas stations in western Kentucky.

There are reports that gas around Paducah raised to $4.60 a gallon.

The governor is preparing to make the announcement at [sic] today.

WHAS11.com will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.
(Story)

How's that mass-transit system in Western Kentucky? Is it anywhere near the point where people can get to where they need to be by bus or train? You know... like Europe?

No?

I think we need to start executing those guilty of price gouging. We go through this every time a hurricane moves into the Gulf.

-DP




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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/12/2008 12:57:00 PM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Blur...

Hello friends, Romans, countrymen...

No, I'm not sure why Romans should get special mention, but I like Rome. So, it's not a bad thing. Any city where people are encouraged to eat and drink until they die is certainly this particular glutton's kinda town. So, Romans? You'll always have a special place in this cold lump I call a heart.

Anyway, today there is just too much pain, and writing is very hard for me; so here's a picture for you to contemplate:

On my hike yesterday through what was once farmland and a small community of houses, I saw this, and had to puzzle over it for a while. (By the way, as it turns out, I was talking to my mom last night, and I found out that my parents thought about buying a massive Dutch-colonial house in this area before I was born, but, apparently, my father took one look at the cliffs, took another look at his children, and realized that his tax deductions would be in near-constant state of flux considering his kids are borderline adrenaline junkies, and those cliffs are pretty damn inviting.)

Anyway, this manhole is just here... in the middle of a field. There's nothing around --no phone, no lights, no motor-cars. Not a single luxury (sorry. I'm freakin' fracked on Vicodin, and opiates tend to turn me into a drooler with a Gilligan's Island kink).

The first thing I thought of when I saw this was, if I ever find myself homeless, I think this sewer would be a perfect place to live. After all, a hovel in the country sure beats a box beneath a bridge, and we all know I really do yearn for a placid, bucolic existence. There could be nature right outside my front door cast-iron lid, and at night, I can see stars and dream of a toilet or furnace. But, I digress...

Right now, I am not in a very good mood. I'm trying to find a better mood, but it's a gray, gloomy day here and something is kicking off the aches and pains. I do know that the transition into fall, although usually very beautiful and easy on the eyes, is going to once again be a series of torturous and painful strides until I inevitably become acclimated to the new season. I'd like to say that after all this time I'm used to it, but it really is an impossible thing to get used to. I'll do my best not to whine or bore you with my tiny miseries. The thing is, this is my blog, and it will forever be an outlet for my angst, my joy, my sadness, and whatever else inspires me and trundles through my heart and mind when I sit down to compose and create. Unfortunately, lately, these aches are just pissing me right the fuck off.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/12/2008 10:45:00 AM

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] I'm Lucky... Sorta.

I can walk here everyday if I so choose. I can meander along these trails that are just a skip south of my house, and I can lose myself and my thoughts among the trees and weeds and sundry critters.

Even better: these hiking trails are right along the lakeshore, and I am hoping that, one of these days, when the morning fog rolls in off Lake Michigan, I can find myself once again on these trails with my camera rig so I can snap some awesome shots of the spooky wilderness. I was thinking of that as I was looking at these images I took earlier today. With just a little fog, I think I'd be smack dab in the center of a Harry Potter novel or somewhere just outside Middle Earth.

These trails are nothing more than a tangle of paths that have been mowed clear by some ambitious person. They run everywhere over the countryside where farms and farm houses once stood. Unfortunately, the abandoned houses have either been removed or they simply fell from the bluffs into Lake Michigan as the tide eroded the land beneath them in heaping, hungry bites.

It's good to have these places, I think --more so in this day and age of constant, brain-stretching input whenever we open our eyes and ears. Everyone needs to get away from time to time, and to me, that's what the world outside our doors is for. Find a place, escape, and just lose yourself with whatever thoughts tumble into your heads. It can be your own backyard, or someone else's. It can be a park or parking lot. It can be five feet of sidewalk or a ten muddy miles beneath your feet. It doesn't matter. Your inspiration and peace of mind is out there. Find it.

In other news, I've taken a bit of a blogging break (again). Strangely enough, I've just not had much to write about lately. That's not to say that there hasn't been stuff going on in my world. I've just hit a sort of wall with this whole thing, and a change of pace was clearly needed. So, I threw this grinding, lumbering wreck of a machine into neutral and just spent the week relaxing until the urge to write once again took root and began to grow. And, that's one of the tricks to life. When you do something because you want to, and not because you have to, the result doesn't matter. What matters is the act, and it can be pretty damn fun when you do things according to your terms. After all, who knows how to enjoy your life better than you?

Other than that, sorry for being so deep. I think I'm just in one of those moods as a result of helping a couple of friends negotiate their way through their respective funks by doing nothing more than what a friend should do.

Well, I'm off to crash. I hope everyone has had a wonderful week, and I hope your day, this day of a sad, never-ending remembrance, was a good one for you.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/11/2008 11:03:00 PM